Political Participation and Civic Literacy in Bajung: An Empirical Study with Correlation Analysis

Political Participation and Civic Literacy in Bajung: An Empirical Study with Correlation Analysis

Author:

K.C., Khadga

Subject:

participation, knowledge, communityliteracy

Abstract:

A certain minimum level of political knowledge is required in democracy. The political knowledge increases political literacy and competence which fosters citizens’ engagement in associations, and their participation in politics. “There is near universal agreement that more knowledgeable people participate at a much higher rate “(Pop kin and Dimock 1999; 137). Also, “We know that decline in political knowledge and voter turn out has coincided with a rise in educational level a surprising fact since more educated persons tend not only to be more knowledgeable but to vote more (Nie, Junn, and Stehl-Barry 1996:34). Similarly, “If we control for socioeconomic class, we know that more highly educated strata generally earn higher income, and the better off vote (Dopplet and Shearer 1999:18). “We also find that education has less of an effect on participation than age (Coulson 1999): people vote more as they grow older. But age included at least two distinct elements: life experience and generation. We first address the former plainly related to knowledge”.
Given this backdrop, my hypothesis states that the political knowledge will be a significant factor to promote civic engagement, electoral and other forms of political participation of citizens. This hypothesis was tested using bivariate correlation analysis, assuming political knowledge as an independent variable and civic engagement and political participation are as dependent variables. The research findings show that politically knowledgeable citizens in the village (Bajung, Parbat, Nepal) are engaging more in civic and political activities than others. The findings may provide decisive policy implications towards the enhancement of the level of political knowledge to the people of given areas.